BTN BikeShare bursts into life

BTN BikeShare in association with Life Natural Spring Water celebrated its opening day in style on Fri 1 Sept with a launch event featuring cycling enthusiasts, councillors and the city’s most eccentric characters.

Residents gathered along the seafront to watch the likes of Disco Bunny, Mellow Zebra, Birdyman and Vince Venus test out the Life Bikes.

The Life Bikes’ opening weekend saw over 1,500 people register to ride, and some 1,700 trips taken across the city. Riders ventured as far as Worthing and Rottingdean.

“Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us on Friday,” said Hourbike owner Tim Caswell, whose company is operating the scheme. “It was a pleasure to see the Life Bikes introduced to the city by some of its most interesting characters.

“We were delighted to see residents embracing and enjoying the Life Bikes over the weekend. Our mainfocus now is to learn about this city’s riding habits to ensure the scheme runs at its best for the people of Brighton & Hove.”

Residents and visitors can hire and locate the Life Bikes via the SoBi app. A casual rental plan, priced at 3p per minute (£1 minimum spend), is ideal for occasional riding. More frequent users may prefer an annual membership which provides an hour of cycling, every day, for £72.

Infrastructure and start-up costs for the scheme are £1.45m. An award of £1.16m was granted by the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership with match funding of £290,000 from Brighton & Hove City Council.